Request for Service. Recovering a memory card that...

[Pandemicc]

- This is a Request for Service. Recovering a memory card that is diagnosed with bad controller

- I have a Lexar 256gb SD card that turned RAW for no apparent reason at all. Now it shows as if it is 2TB. I checked the card through the HEX viewer and it only shows zeroes.

- I sent the card to a reputable lab six months ago, they told me that this kind of job usually takes up to six months. Today I got an e-mail from them, telling me that it wasn't possible to gain access to the NAND memory. In this case there is nothing more they can do and they consider the card to be non recoverable.

- I will not share the lab's name, I love them, they do great things. I will continue keep recommending them.

- However, I know that recovery specialists specialise in different kind of storage devices. So here I am looking for a specialist/lab that can solve this case

[Lardman]

- I sent the card to a reputable lab six months ago, they told me that this kind of job usually takes up to six months.

Who's quoting 6 months for a chip-off ?

I love them, they do great things. I will continue keep recommending them.

I wouldn't ! Top 3 Id say are Europe : https://www.flash-killer.com/ , States : https://www.recovermyflashdrive.com/ UK : https://www.nandoff.com/

[Pandemicc]

- I sent the card to a reputable lab six months ago, they told me that this kind of job usually takes up to six months.

Who's quoting 6 months for a chip-off ?

I love them, they do great things. I will continue keep recommending them.

I wouldn't ! Top 3 Id say are Europe : https://www.flash-killer.com/ , States : https://www.recovermyflashdrive.com/ UK : https://www.nandoff.com/

I will contact them, thanks

[northwind]

Who's quoting 6 months for a chip-off ?

Unless this is a huge co-incidence, that would be us.

However, this is not an SD card, it's a MicroSD card with an unknown pinout. These cases take a long time, hence the *up to* 6 months.

I'm not the one who does flash, but looking at the notes, while we were trying to figure out the pinout we discovered there is a short between VCCq-GND which we struggled to figure out how to bypass/fix, but failed.

Maybe some of the other labs have a way, I really wish they can recover this device, the OP is very kind and co-operative. I'm sorry we couldn't help, we tried our best.

[Lardman]

I'm not the one who does flash, but looking at the notes, while we were trying to figure out the pinout we discovered there is a short between VCCq-GND which we struggled to figure out how to bypass/fix, but failed.

I can't say I'm not surprised at your time scales - there's no way I could get away with quoting that sort of length of time. But as I don't have any xray capabilities I'd have classed it as (BER) Beyond Economical Recovery as soon as the short was discovered and referred it on to one of the above - can't win them all.

[northwind]

Our usual turnaround time for cases like this is 2-3 weeks.

However, when I smell trouble (ie. very hard case) I ask them to quote a lot of time to save ourselves from the complaints. It's very, very rare (less than 1%), but it does happen.

[HaQue]

There are ways such as decapping fully and repairing the circuit, but the equipment is extremely expensive, time consuming, and some level of expertise is needed. The cost would be significant to attempt with no guarantee of success. BER is a decent description of this problem.